ACROSS MISSISSIPPI — Amid a statewide nursing shortage, hundreds of qualified applicants for nursing degrees are not being admitted to programs in Mississippi because the colleges can’t meet the demand.

The Clarion-Ledger reports community colleges face the most severe admissions limitations. At East Central Community College in Decatur, for example, 485 qualified applicants submitted bids for this fall’s associate’s degree class, and the school accepted 72.

Itawamba Community College received 850 applications and accepted 150.

The University of Mississippi Medical Center’s bachelor’s degree in nursing drew 350 applications for this fall’s class of 140 slots.

Pat Waltman, associate dean for academic affairs and accreditation at UMC’s School of Nursing, said enrollment in the school’s programs is increasing but not quickly enough.

2 Responses to “Colleges turning away nursing school applicants”

At this juncture there are some 50,000 qualified nursing applicants anually being turned away from U.S. based nursing schools. Generally this is a bi-product of lack of instructors and lack of physical classroom capacity. When you combine these considerations with the nursing shortage that exists today and that promises to get ever more acute as our “boomers” age, we are setting up for a very real healthcare problem moving forward.

In an effort to help combat this potential calamity we (Medical Professionals) are working with excellent/accredited Philippine based nursing schools to help train hopeful US nursing school applicants who have not been able to find school openings here. If you fit that general description, please check in. We’d like to discuss this very innovative nursing school option with you. If you have questions about the viability of a Philippine nursing education, I’d encourage you to contact any of the thousands of Philippino nurses that are practising in US right now. Otherwise please contact me at john@medicalprofresources to discuss your nursing education, or about how you might expand your institutions school capacity today.